The Tochi Scouts HQ Wing football team, the winners of the 1933 Company League

Photograph, India, North West Frontier, 1933.

Football was widely enjoyed by soldiers of the Indian Army. Like all sports, it helped develop soldierly qualities such as leadership, fitness, initiative, endurance, esprit de corps, teamwork and independence. Like their British counterparts, Indian Army regiments took part in competitions against both Indian and British units stationed on the subcontinent. From the mountains of the North West Frontier to the burning plains of Central India, football was played at Army bases and cantonments.

From a photograph album of 171 photographs relating to Captain, later Brigadier, John R Booth's Indian Army service with the 4th Bn, 14th Punjab Regiment, during the 1930s.